Jelo suddenly remembered Mira, they had stepped into the portal together, and she was somewhere unknown right now. His mind immediately began racing with possibilities, each one more concerning than the last.

He wondered if she was in a situation similar to his, one of moderate danger where she might be able to handle herself with caution and quick thinking.

Or if she was in a more perilous spot, perhaps facing creatures even worse than the mutated Dabba he'd just barely survived. The thought made his stomach clench with worry.

Or perhaps she was lucky and had ended up in a less dangerous area, somewhere with fewer threats, somewhere she could hide and wait. That was the best-case scenario, the outcome Jelo desperately hoped for even as doubt gnawed at him.

But even as he tried to reassure himself with that thought, he questioned whether there was actually a place in this area that was genuinely less dangerous. This was the Forgotten City, after all.

A place so poisoned and corrupted by nuclear weapons that it had been abandoned entirely, left to rot and decay for years. A place where the Dabbas had been twisted into monstrous versions of themselves. Even the "safer" zones in a place like this were probably more dangerous than most hostile territories outside.

Jelo clenched his fists, frustration and worry warring inside him. He needed to find her. Soon. Before something happened that couldn't be undone.

But just as he was about to start searching, the system sent him a notification that appeared in his vision with a soft chime.

[Dabba Crystal detected in defeated enemy]

[Recommendation: Collect Dabba Crystal before departing]

Jelo blinked, his train of thought derailing completely. He was surprised by the notification and immediately wondered what the Dabba crystal was.

He'd never heard of such a thing before, not in any of his classes or training sessions at the academy. Was this something new? Something specific to mutated Dabbas?

"What's a Dabba crystal?" Jelo asked aloud, directing the question at the system itself.

The response came immediately, text scrolling across his vision with clinical precision.

[Dabba Crystal: A condensed core of life force energy found within every Dabba. The crystal forms naturally as a Dabba matures and grows stronger, serving as the primary reservoir for its vital energy. These crystals are highly valuable for multiple purposes:]

[Location: Embedded in the cranial cavity of the Dabba, typically near the center of the skull.]

Jelo read through the information twice, processing what the system was telling him. Inside every Dabba there was a crystal containing their life force, which was apparently quite valuable. He'd killed dozens of Dabbas before this and never known about the crystals.

Had he been leaving valuable resources behind all this time? The thought was frustrating, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

The Dabba crystal was located in the Dabba's head, according to the system. Jelo turned his attention back to the massive corpse lying motionless on the ground before him.

The creature's skull was enormous, heavily armored with thick bone and mutated tissue. Getting inside it to retrieve the crystal wasn't going to be easy.

Jelo got up slowly, his newly restored body moving with smooth efficiency. He walked around the Dabba's corpse until he was standing near its head, looking down at the grotesque features that had been so terrifying in combat.

In death, the creature looked almost pathetic, just another victim of the radiation that had poisoned this entire region.

He tried to retrieve the crystal, but first he had to figure out how to actually access it. He wondered how he was supposed to open the skull to extract the crystal without the proper tools.

The bone was incredibly thick, designed to protect the brain from damage during the creature's violent existence. His sharp stone wouldn't be nearly strong enough to cut through something like that.

Eventually, Jelo resorted to brute force, he'd use what the system had just enhanced, his own physical strength. He positioned himself carefully, planted his feet, and began smashing the Dabba's skull with his own hands.

The first strike echoed across the desolate landscape with a sickening crunch. Jelo felt the impact reverberate up his arms, but the bone held.

He struck again, harder this time, putting more of his enhanced strength behind the blow. Another crack, louder than the first. The skull was beginning to give way, fractures spreading like spiderwebs across its surface.

Jelo continued the brutal work, raining down powerful strikes with both fists. Each impact sent fresh cracks radiating through the thick bone. His knuckles should have been bleeding, should have been broken from the repeated trauma, but his enhanced body handled the abuse with ease.

The scales that had appeared during his level-up protected his hands, hardening them into weapons capable of breaking through even this reinforced skull.

Through a combination of smashing the skull with his bare hands and carefully cutting through the weakened sections with the sharp stone he'd used earlier, Jelo eventually managed to open the Dabba's cranial cavity.

The process was messy and time-consuming, pieces of bone and brain matter scattering around him as he worked, but finally he could see inside.

There, nestled in the center of the brain tissue, was the Dabba crystal.

It was larger than Jelo had expected, roughly the size of his fist, and it pulsed with a faint inner light. The crystal was dark, almost black, but when the light hit it at certain angles, it refracted into deep reds and purples.

The surface was surprisingly smooth, perfectly geometric in a way that seemed impossible for something grown organically inside a living creature. Power radiated from it in waves Jelo could actually feel, a subtle pressure against his enhanced senses.

He reached in carefully and retrieved the beast crystal, pulling it free from the surrounding tissue.

As he stood there holding the crystal, considering what to do with it, the system sent another notification that appeared with perfect timing.

[Dabba Crystal retrieved successfully]

[Would you like to store the crystal in your Inventory?]

[Yes] [No]

Jelo was genuinely surprised to learn he even had an inventory. The system had never mentioned this feature before, and he'd certainly never tried to access one.

It would certainly be more convenient than trying to carry the crystal around in his hands or pockets, especially if he was going to be fighting more Dabbas while searching for Mira.

He mentally selected "Yes," agreeing to the system's suggestion.

The moment he confirmed his choice, the beast crystal simply disappeared from his hands.

One second it was there, solid and real and warm against his palms, and the next second it was gone as if it had never existed at all. There was no flash of light, no dramatic visual effect, it just vanished.

Curious about where exactly the crystal had gone, Jelo focused on the concept of his inventory, and immediately a new interface appeared in his vision.

It was similar to his stats page but organized differently, showing a grid of empty squares with only one square occupied. When he focused on that occupied square, information appeared.

[Inventory: ]

[Mutated Dabba Crystal]

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